[ad_1]
The first half of the 2020-21 NBA season schedule is out, and you won’t be surprised to learn that the league has chosen to give the Lakers more domestic televised games than any other team.
According to Pro Basketball Talk’s tally, the Lakers will have 16 of their first 37 games on ABC, ESPN or TNT to open the season, two more than any other team in the NBA. That total rises to 23 if you add all seven games on NBA TV, which was not counted in the census schedule.
Behind the Lakers is a tie at four for second place with 14 apiece between the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans and Golden State Warriors.
On the other side of the spectrum are seven teams with huge zero from those games: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sacramento Kings, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Washington Wizards.
With five more teams having just one game and three more with two, three, and four each, that means the Lakers have more games on ABC, ESPN, or TNT than literally half of the NBA teams combined.
Lakers lead NBA national television list
National TV games for the 2020-21 season:
Lakers – 16
Celtics – 14
Mavericks – 14
Pelicans – 14
Warriors – 14
Nets – 13
Bucks – 12
Lawn mowers – 11
Heat – 10
76ers – 9
Suns – 9
Rockets – 7
Nuggets – 6
Blazers – 5
Jazz – 4
Raptors – 4
Grizzlies – 3(Via @basketballtalk ) pic.twitter.com/emlmFgZE9f
– NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) December 5, 2020
A team with more domestic appearances than half the league is wild, although looking at the chart above shows the NBA has at least been successful in keeping some teams on hand. If anything, that illustrates less what the Lakers have than the number of teams that are just plain helpless in the NBA today.
Still, it’s no surprise that the NBA has put the Lakers on national television so many times. This is natural when the most popular team in the league has the most popular player in the league and is out of a league.
Hopes are high for a repeat of the Lakers title after a strong offseason, in which the team added players like Marc Gasol, Montrezl Harrell, Dennis Schroder and Wesley Matthews. Essentially, the team competently retained or replaced all of the important players on their championship squad.
The Lakers’ season kicks off on opening night on December 22, where they face off against Crosstown rival Los Angeles Clippers on TNT. Three days later it’s another national game with their Christmas game against Dallas and rising superstar Luka Doncic.
It’s worth remembering that this is only half of the NBA schedule, so the national TV roster could very well balance out in the second half. The Wizards, in particular, might see televised games nationally after adding Russell Westbrook, and you have to understand that some of the other one-game and zero-game teams might come as a surprise.
But for now, it’s clearly still the Lakers league.
Learn more about Yahoo Sports:
[ad_2]
Source link